The Impact of Dressing Room Lighting Directions on Consumer - Essay Example

The retailer should realize the dressing room's importance and this would help in increasing the sales. A lot of research works have been made in the last few years regarding the dressing room lighting. All the researches have given importance to how the dress room lighting influences the consumer’s emotional states and personal evaluations. Many researchers believe that the buying decision at the clothing store depends upon the impression carried by the consumer in the dressing room. If the dressing room scenario is not good, it may negatively affect the shopping experience and results in a lost sale.

If the store environment is not proper, it may affect the consumer mode on shopping. If there is good atmosphere, it motivates the shopper to do shopping. As a result, lightening of the store and the dressing room in the clothing store have a great role to play in the clothing business. A Review of LiteratureTill today many studies have been made about the lighting of the main showroom, however, fewer studies have been made about the lighting of the dressing room. Researchers have found that when lighting is used as a stimulus, it enhances product evaluation as well as the store's atmospheric conditions.

(Obermiller & Bitner, 1984: Areni & Kim, 1994; Donovan & Rossiter, 1982; Donovan, et.al., 1994; Park & Farr, 2007; Summers & Hebert, 2001). This also creates a forgettable shopping experience for the consumer (Hegde, 2000), though the effects of lighting on the main sales floor have been studied in some depth, nothing is known about how dressing room lighting influences the experience of the consumer. Mang, 2008 and Underhill,1999 reveal that the clothing store dressing rooms are where consumers try on clothes and make their final evaluations and it is one of the most critical aspects of the sales area.

According to Rea, 2000, they also make the decision to buy and possibly evaluate the price and need for the product. The Lighting Handbook of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) makes lighting design recommendations for the dressing room. In their designing modules, they suggest the use of frontal lighting as well as top lighting. This helps in creating a model of the face as well as a fantastic appearance on the mirrors. The perfect fit, 2007, states that frontal lighting is preferred to top lighting in a dressing room.

Considering the lack of studies available to retailers, research is needed to explore how lighting is important for attracting new consumers to the shop. The whole purpose of this paper is to find out how the dressing room lighting is going to affect the emotional states of the consumer, lighting perceptions, self-evaluation, dressing room evaluations, and the consumer’s overall dressing room experience. Emotional states are the amount of arousal and pleasure experienced in a retail setting (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982, 1994).

Arousal is the amount of stimulation and excitement that space causes consumers while pleasure is how satisfied or good the person feels in the environment (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982, 1994). Arousal and pleasure go hand in hand either in high- end retail stores or low- end retail stores (Kaltcheva & Weitz, 2006). The two aspects have been used to measure the lighting effects in the dressing room. Brightness, the colour of light as well as quality has been said to be favorable aspects of viewing the perception.

The consumer has been seen in favor of some lighting system over others. In this research paper, I am going to review the literature that pertains to the purpose of the study. Some of my reviews give importance to the retail atmosphere, retail lighting practices, dressing room, and the lighting. Retail Environment and LightingFirst such a study are made by Donovan and Rossiter (1982). According to this study the emotion is attached to buying decisions. According to Donovan and Rossiter (1982), arousal and pleasure are good determinants of